Tire building machine



Dec. 22, 1931. G. F. WIKLE 1,837,351

TIRE BUILDING MACHINE Filed Jan. 23, 1929 INVENTOR.

GEORGE E WIALE.

A TTORNE Y.

i fabrication of pneumatic tires and more par- Patented Dec 22l, 1 9 31l GEORGE F. 'wIxLE, or mILwAU-KEE'wIscoNsI v, AssieNon TO THE mK-Rtmmjoom. rm, or cn corm rA Ls. MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION or MASSACHUSETTS:

'T'IRE BUILDING fieCHInn V iApp lication' filerl January 23,} lSerial Hait I344.

lMy finirention relates tomachines for the ticnlarly" to a device for stitchingtogether .on a'building'drum orcorethe carcassplies, sidewalls, chafing strips, tread, etc.,' to produce a pneumatic tire. carcass ready for vulcanization,

It is amongthe obje ts of my intention to provide a stitching device' which' is coin stantly withincontrol, of the operator 'and also a stitching device which will eXert LHIii, form pressure regardlessof theirregulari' ties of the b'uilding drum. Another object "is to provide a stitching rollwhich will autolfi matically maintain, within certainlimitsila predetermined stitching angIeirreSpecti e of the :contour of the hnilding drnmi Other objects will be apparent from thejspecifica tion andclaims. j 3 In the drawings illustrating 'one einbodi-f ment of invention, I Fig. 1 is a sideview 0 inoperative position; 1

Fig. 2 is a sectional VlGWtLliIl substane tially on the 1ine2 -2 ofiFig.,1;"" i a 'Fig'l3 is a sectional viewntaken substan-j tially on the line 33 of Fig. 2; and l V Fig. 4 is a sectional View taken on theline V 44tofFig. 1. w J In the drawings 10 represents a tire buildf my invention shown ing drum or former adapted to be rotated in the direction of the arrow 11 shown in Fig. 1 upon which is built a tire carcass 12; the

tread portion 13 of which is being stitched down. A bracket 14 (Fig. 1 which isat; tached to the drum support not shown, is adapted toiposition ashaft 15 into a predetermined position inrespect to the building drum 10. Pivotally positioned by collars 16 on shaft 15 (see Fig. 2) are two side mem here 17 which are in turn assembledto. twoh hollow shafts 18 and 19. A handle 20 is at tached to one of the 'sidemembers 17 to enable the hollow shafts 18 and 19 and side members 17 to be pivoted as a unit on shaft 15. Rotatably positioned in'liollow shaft 19 is a shaft 21 to which is pinned atone end a handle 22 and at the other a gear segment 23. Meshing with the gear segment 23 is a pinion 24 which is pinned to a reversely The brackets-f 2 6 threaded shaft'25 rotatahlypositioned in 1101 low'l shaft.fl8. Slidably manner-ten shaft 18 jaretwobrackets 26*in1which areforined slots '27 engaging1holts28" in nuts 29.. The hollow shaft 18 hass'lotsBO and the nuts 29 'enga g'e in these slots and also engage the reversely threaded shaftj25 Itwil'lhe evid'e'nt from the foregoing that as the ha'nd1ef22is rotated in the direction "of the. arrow 31',(Fig.' 1)" the f 1 retelfs'elygthreaded' shaft 25fwill, through the action of gearisegrnentg23 and pinion 24,"be rotated thus sliding] the bracltets 26 from "the dottedline position 'ihiFiggmo the f n dine-position andact-ionniay lac-reversed I 2iin the' pposite by, I rotatin "the 1 Handle 2 irection;-.- 1 Z I formedWJ-shap ed as 4 shown in 3; andp ivotally siipportibell cranks 32,onone arm'ofwhic'h are rollersSS engaging the hollow. shaft 119 while 'co1npre's- -7.0 sion springsfi iare positionedto engagebe; tween "theg'otherarm of the" bell cranks '32 i nd i the brackets 26 as shownin Fig? 3.

Swivel stitcher mountings 35 areino'iintedin the brackets 26 with i'spring's 36 {actingfon collars 36" "attached. to p the swivel 'sti'tcher "mountings to return the 'latter,' when in operativ to a predetermined Qrest position.

*fititching rolls 37 and 88am mounted in the j swivel tacker mountings 35 (Fig; 4 bybiril- 1's;

bearings 3.9 and 40 haYihg common'i'aceways 41 which areboltedfto the stitch er @11 37 by i f bolts 4.21am locknuts leBv As will be readily seen fromFig. 4, this 'as's'emblypermitsthe stitching rolls37 toirotate independently of"*' thestitching rolls 38130 compensate fontheif] different" rotating speeds .which result from the different diameters. {This difference; in

diameters is an important partofmyinvenonby imp y a ius g th i m ter s 1 the stitching .rollsithey; may, ,beiin'ade to stitch at the most efiicient angle withv respectto the surface of the. buildingdrnmL vWhen the Stitchers are on the core their shafts arein the saineplane as the shaft of thecore' hlit are at an angleto'the shaft ofthe core so that the stitchers tendto push the fabric away from the'center ofthe core due to the'angle' of thestitcher with the face of-*the core.-'However; as soonasthe stitchers start around the corner of the core it is desirable to increase the push of the stitcher because the cords of the fabric must be forced together due to the decreasing diameter. This is accomplished in two ways. First, the angle of the stitcher to the face of the core is decreased due to the curvature of the face. Then due to the fact that the center line of shaft 35 is not parallel to a tangent thru the point of contact of the stitcher with he carcass but is at an angle away from it on. the side from which the core is rotating, the forward part of the stitcher is pressed harder against the carcass and thus pushes the fabric around the curvature of the core;' This push tends to increase as the stitcher rotates on shaft 35 but tends to decrease as the whole stitcher rotates on shaft 15 so that by the time the stitcher wheel passes around thebeadthe drag is not enough to wrinkle the stock. This last condition is determined by the distance of shaft 15 from the core shaft. 5 i

The operation ofv the whole machine is as follows. The operator presses the handle 20, as indicated by the arrow 44 (Fig. 1) to pivot the whole assembly on the shaft 15 .to bring the stitching rolls 37 into contact with the portion of the tire carcass which is to be stitched. The spring 36 will then yield to allow the stitching rolls sew come into contact with the carcass and to also establish the predetermined stitching angle. A further depression of the handle 20 will cause the brackets 26 to pivot onthe hollow shaftlS and, through the action of the bell cranks 3'2.

compress the springs 34 thus providing a yieldable pressure on the stitching rolls, the force of which may be governed by the pressure on handle 20. In actual practice the tire building drums seldom run true and a yieldable pressureon the stitching rolls is necessarily demanded for the proper stitching action and also in my invention this yieldable pressure is used to maintain at all times a substantially equal pressure on each set of stitching rolls. After the proper pressure has been applied the handle 31 is rotated to move the stitcher rolls as shown in-Fig. 4 to perform the stitching operation. V

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. A device of the character describe-d comprising a frame pivoted adjacent a tire build ing drum, a shaft formingpart of said frame,

a pairof stitcher supporting brackets pivotally and slidably mounted on said shaft, a handle forming part of said frame by means of ated with the brackets to engage in the slots of the hollow shaft and also the reversely threaded shaft, means supported on the frame torotate the reversely threaded shaft to move the brackets toward and from each oth'eron the shaft, means sup- U ported by the brackets to permit the latter to be pivoted on the hollow shaftwith a yieldable pressure swivel mounting on the'bra'ckets supporting stitching rolls and means associat-ed with the frain'eto swing the latter about its pivot to bring the stitching roll against a tire carcass on the building drum.

A device of the character described coinprising a support adapted to be positioned adjacent a tire building drum, a shaft swivel mounted in said. support, a stitching device carried by said shaft and comprising a pair of independently rotatable stitching rolls, of different diameters, held in a. lixed spaced relation to each other, the swivel mounting 'ofsaid shaft perinitt-ing both rolls to simul-" taneously engage the surface to be operated upon at an'aiigle predetermined by the difference in diameters of the rolls.

4. A device asin claim 3 whereinsaid shaft,

is positioned in the plane of rotation of the" drum but at an angle to the tangent to the drum passing through the point of contact of the roll with the drum, and means to vary said angle. p

GEORGE E. WIKLE. 

